Santa Margarita Holds Off El Toro to Get Shot at Title

Santa Margarita, which won the Southern Section Division IV girls’ water polo championship last season, earned a trip to this season’s Division I title game with an 8-5 semifinal victory over El Toro Friday at El Toro High.

Lauren Edwards and Erika Figge each scored two goals and goalie Kristen Carfioli made nine saves for the second-seeded Eagles, who avenged a 7-3 loss to El Toro earlier this season and advanced to the championship game against defending champion Foothill on Monday at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

El Toro (23-7) took a 1-0 lead on Ke’ala Carter’s goal from two meters 2 minutes 4 seconds into the game, but the Eagles (22-8) then outscored the Chargers, 6-0, over the next 16 1/2 minutes.

Six players scored for the Eagles, who scored on five of eight shots during one stretch in the first and second quarters.

El Toro’s Katie Headley scored twice in the final 2:35 of the third quarter to break the Charger scoring drought, but the Eagles answered with a goal by Kristina Kunkel and another from Clare Peyrebrune, with 0.6 seconds left in the quarter.

Santa Margarita then took only two shots in the final quarter as it protected its lead.

“We struggled early in the season but things started coming together for us in the Irvine tournament,” said senior Katy Kunkel, who had one goal Friday. “It was the exact same thing last season.”

In the other semifinal:

Foothill 7, Capistrano Valley 1--Brittany Hayes, Gabbie Domanic and Katie Card each scored two goals for Foothill (28-1), the top-seeded team, and the Knight defense held UCLA-bound Amber Stachowski scoreless to advance.

Stachowski was disqualified with 25 seconds left in the third quarter, when she picked up her third ejection.

“She didn’t have one ejection the whole season so how do you explain her getting three?” said Capistrano Valley Coach Jason Lynch. “I thought the officials decided the game tonight. They didn’t let the girls do it.”

Stachowski picked up her first ejection 16 seconds into the game, when Hayes drew a four-meter penalty shot and scored for a 1-0 lead. Domanic scored two goals in a 25-second span to make it 3-0 and goalie Emily Feher, who had six saves, anchored a stingy defense that preserved the lead.

Aimee Stachowski scored the only goal for fourth-seeded Capistrano Valley (23-7-1).